The bulk of John Allen's weekly column yesterday was his commentary on the Wikileaked documents relating to the Vatican, and I have posted that in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, but this vignette belongs here as an inteersting sidebar...
Face time with the Pope
Dec. 17, 2010
...Last Friday I was briefly in the Papal Apartment, watching Benedict XVI receive a visiting head of state. Those occasions are generally the only opportunity members of the press have for “face time” with the Pope, aside from brief sessions with the media on the papal plane during foreign trips.
There’s almost nothing less edifying than reporters trying to offer armchair medical diagnoses, so I’ll skip any observations on Benedict’s health. What I can say is that having covered the twilight of John Paul’s papacy, I have a sense of when the Pope’s inner circle is concerned, and I don’t pick up that vibe.
After the visiting VIP departs, the journalists usually are given a chance to greet the Pope. That was the case on Friday, as the Pope’s personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gänswein, waved us forward.
Although I’ve met Benedict numerous times, I’m also aware that Popes meet a staggering number of people, and so I never assume he’s automatically going to recognize me. Thus when I’m introduced, I usually say something like: “Holy Father, I’m John Allen from the National Catholic Reporter and CNN in the United States. You may remember I’ve written two books about you.”
This time Gänswein broke in to say, "
Sì, conosciutissimo", roughly meaning, “Yeah, we all know who you are.”
It’s one of those moments you tend to chew over after the fact, since it wasn’t exactly clear whether Gänswein meant to be friendly -- along the lines of, “you need no introduction” -- or if he was warning me that they’ve got my number, so don’t try any funny business. For the record, he said it with a smile, so I’m inclined to the former hypothesis ... maybe with a smidgen of the latter thrown in the mix.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/12/2010 17:25]